District Superintendent Erik Gundersen said he was “very disappointed” that Pascack Valley’s principal search did not turn out as he expected.

Brian Hutchinson, the Emerson Junior-Senior High School principal, asked the Board of Education to rescind his appointment days after the community expressed support for Interim Principal John Puccio to take on the permanent position.

“It does not necessarily mean that people would be supportive of Mr. Hutchinson,” Gundersen said. “How can anybody in our community be supportive of Mr. Hutchinson because they don’t know what he offers to the table?” We didn’t get what the process dictated was the best qualified candidate. It’s one thing to go ahead and make that public statement that you support someone, but when it’s enough to cause the final candidate — who agreed to come — to back away, quite honestly that hurt this district. That hurt this school.”

When reached for comment after the first board meeting, Hutchinson said “it would be most appropriate to have official information come from the PVRSD office.” After the second board meeting, he did not respond to two email requests for comment about his decision to not take on the position.

After former Pascack Valley Principal Tom DeMaio retired on Dec. 20 after 18 years at PV, Puccio, who will return as assistant principal next school year, became the interim principal while the district conducted a permanent principal search starting on Jan. 15. In January, Pascack Hills Principal Glenn deMarrais also announced his retirement. 

“Selecting a principal is an important job, and you have to go through a process,” Gundersen said. “We are committed to hiring the best person. The committees look at everything.”

Gundersen said that after he completed an original screening of internal and external candidates, a committee of students, parents, teachers, counselors, and a couple of board members conducted a first round interview with around 10 candidates until four individuals were chosen. He also sent out a principal search feedback survey to students, parents, and staff members based on leadership standards made by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. 

“The second round was much more in-depth,” Gundersen said. “[Administrators, supervisors, and I] drilled into the areas of excitement and concern that we had for these candidates. Based upon those four candidates, that round made the recommendation that [PH Assistant Principal Tim] Wieland was the right fit for Pascack Hills, and Hutchinson was the right fit for Pascack Valley.”

Gundersen lastly conducted additional interviews with Wieland and Hutchison before making a recommendation to the Board of Education at its meeting on March 16.

“The board and I tried extremely hard to make the public gain access to that meeting,” Gundersen said. “We had everything from Google Forms to allowing people to call in. At that time, people were still able to come to the meeting, but you couldn’t have more than 50 people show up [due to the coronavirus].”

In a 7-2 vote, the BOE approved Hutchinson as PV’s permanent principal for the 2020-2021 school year, and Wieland was approved for PH. At the meeting, Gundersen read more than 70 letters that expressed support for Puccio to instead take on the position. 

“The recommendation had already been made, and that’s when the letters came in — it’s not a knock on anyone,” Gundersen said. “The majority of the board saw that there was a clear, objective process to find the best candidate for the job.”

Gundersen said he had conversations with Hutchinson following the meeting before he had the board rescind his appointment at the next BOE meeting on April 13. 

To fill the vacancy, Gundersen had the choice to relaunch a search, but he said due to the pandemic, it would have been difficult to conduct interviews on Zoom.

“Most importantly, if we’re looking for the best candidate, I would argue that most principal candidates aren’t going to leave their schools or interview for other positions right now in the middle of a global crisis,” Gundersen said. 

Gundersen also said the candidates of the original principal search were not ranked for the next person in line to be chosen.

“If you get to the very end and the board approves a candidate, and the candidate verbally says ‘Yes, I’m coming,’ that’s your person,” Gundersen said. “It’s not fair to the school community to take up the back-up candidate, even if we had a ranking. It wouldn’t be fair for the next person to get the job because everyone would know that this wasn’t really the first choice — it would put the person at a disadvantage.” 

Gundersen then decided to ask deMarrais, who has spent nine years as a principal in the district, if he would consider serving as PV’s principal for one year.

“I felt bad that the other candidate withdrew, and I didn’t even think I was an option, so my first reaction was ‘Wow, that’s crazy,’” deMarrais said. “Pascack Valley, coming back for a year, changing my plans.”

Following Gundersen’s request, deMarrais spoke to his wife and Wieland before making a final decision.

“In the midst of all that, my older brother who was a mentor to me and just a great voice of reason passed away,” deMarrais said. “In one of my last conversations with him, I threw out this crazy scenario, and he said to me, ‘You’ve never been one to walk away from a challenge.’ It made me think deeper about this then I originally was.”

DeMarrais said he sees himself as a team player and “had to practice what [he] preached” to help the district.

“This district, which has been my team for a long time, has been really good for me,” deMarrais said. “They hired me as a teacher in 1988 and hired me again in 2001 as an assistant principal without any experience. They trusted me with the principalship in 2012, a job at one time I had only dreamed of. When a team is in need, you sacrifice and step up.”

At the BOE meeting on April 13, Gundersen recommended deMarrais as PV’s principal, and he was unanimously approved. 

“I really look forward to forging new relationships and building on the already-existing ones,” deMarrais said. “I look forward to working side-by-side with Mr. Puccio. He and I have a long-standing, mutual and respectful relationship, and I think that’s only going to grow. I have tremendous knowledge and respect for the faculty, and I know many of them, but others I know through reputation. Now I get a chance to really work alongside them.”

As deMarrais comes to PV next year, Gundersen said a search will be relaunched to find the “right fit for Pascack Valley for the long term.” 

“Mr. deMarrais is going to see what PV is all about — the spirit, heart, and sense of family that Hills has, but it’s just different,” Gundersen said. “We are all going to see things we could do differently at Pascack Valley that we can benefit from.”

(Editor’s Note: For the sake of timeliness, this article was run without a comment for Interim Principal John Puccio. An interview was planned with Puccio to provide his perspective in an upcoming story, but he did not make himself available for comment.)